Workers carrying power lines raced on foot across a portion of Interstate 5 near Grand Mound on Wednesday as part of an effort to replace lines that had crashed onto the freeway during a Tuesday windstorm.

“Because we’re going over I-5, it complicates things a lot,” said Bryan Moody with Wilson Construction. “A process like this would normally take about 2 ½ weeks.”

KIRO 7’s Richard Thompson and a camera crew watched as crews got the new power lines strung out across an overpass and prepared everything before the order was given for the Washington State Patrol to begin a rolling slowdown of traffic on I-5 north and south of the work crews.

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“We’re gonna try to do this in about 10 minutes,” Moody said as the crews prepared for action.

When traffic stopped, the crews dropped lines from the overpass and scrambled quickly onto I-5, pulling the lines with them. Those lines stretched all the way across the freeway, and were quickly hoisted into place and secured.

Crews asked for 10 minutes, but they pulled off the operation in three.

Shortly thereafter, traffic was moving at full speed on I-5 again, and people without power for more than a week finally had relief.

“Twenty more houses with power and some happy customers,” Moody said.